The rarified air of King County: how someone so intelligent could be so ignorant.

Thursday, September 29, 2005

For the tax and spend crowd, the word “no” is akin to acceptance of the anti-Christ. For some reason, the PI decided to waste ink on this person’s perspective, which I will now ginzu with the delicacy of a brain surgeon.

Someone somewhere should just say yes
By CHI-DOOH LISPECIAL TO THE POST-INTELLIGENCER
The once ubiquitous "Just Say No" posters and bumper stickers designed to coax children away from drugs now serve aptly to describe the current political mind-set, locally and statewide. The politics of naysaying sweeps through our region like a fearsome Gulf Coast hurricane, leaving behind a swath of destroyed plans, programs and taxing schemes.

Like hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the politics of naysaying builds nothing. It only destroys.

OK… so in this guy’s world, holding the government accountable and requiring responsible spending is not only something we should not do, it is, in fact, a destructive force, equal to that of Katrina.

Riiiight.

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, having established himself as a formidable political force in our city and region, last week turned his thumbs down on the monorail. Gutsy leadership, some say.

How low the bar has dropped on gauging leadership, I say.

With the kind of political muscle he has built up in his first term, Nickels is in perfect position to broker a creative solution to the monorail mess.

A merger with Sound Transit or Metro, so we can get better coordinated regional transportation planning? Other possibilities? Do we need enabling legislation? Then why not get it drafted and start lobbying for support?

Why aren't we being offered ideas culled from successful rapid transit systems elsewhere in this country and around the world, in cities and regions the size of Seattle and Puget Sound?

Examples abound that could give us hope, and a vision of the possibilities here.

“Examples abound?” Try listing a few. If there were all that many, we already would have stolen those ideas and put them into place here.

Instead, the mayor just says no.

So, let me get this straight: You’re complaining because the mayor is trying to kill what he believes to be an out of control project… yet you, personally, offer zero in the way of alternatives.

GREAT job of coat-holding, there.

Statewide, Initiative 912 threatens to dismantle the funding for highway projects in just about every county.

Proponents, led by former gubernatorial candidate John Carlson, claim that Olympia got it all wrong and that added gas tax revenues will not solve congestion in major urban areas.

They are… and it won’t.

They're right in this respect: We long ago reached the point of diminishing returns with highways.

That is nonsense, of course. What we need to do is keep highway growth on the same level as population growth.

During the time our population has grown by 1/3’d, our highway miles have grown by less then 50. Not percent… 50 miles.

Diminishing returns are, of course, a direct function of diminishing capacity.

Building new and improving existing highways no longer even qualify as short-term fixes for traffic congestion in major urban corridors.

Only in your mind. Care to back this up with some facts, instead of your entirely unsupported opinion?

The Legislature and Gov. Christine Gregoire may be faulted for some sloppy patchwork but do Carlson & Co. offer any sensible alternatives?

Just the tiniest bit of hypocrisy here:

First, there is no excuse for the gas tax as they attempted to ram it down our throats. As I laid it out here, the Legislature should be faulted because, at BEST, only 44% of the billions collected will be put into concrete. There are many reasons why this turd won’t float in the governor’s punchbowl, and naturally, the suggestions resulting from this piss-poor effort to ignore the will of the people under the guise of what the left calls “leadership” but which everyone else calls “arrogance” are many and widely available… if one would care to look.

Second, isn’t it odd that Mr. Li demands “sensible alternatives” to this gas tax, but provides none himself for the monorail debacle?

Have they even begun to offer thoughtful ideas on rail alternatives?

Since there aren’t any, how could they?

“Rail” accomplishes nothing but huge bills and huge subsidies. Light rail junkies have no success stories that do not involve massive public subsidies, far beyond that of roads.

Do they shed any light on how to fund and build a system beyond Sound Transit's first 14 miles, so we can really take care of the congestion problem plaguing the Puget Sound region?

Unfortunately for Mr. Li, even Sound Transit has admitted that a fully built and running light rail system will have exactly NO impact on congestion.

Extending an idiotic program beyond it’s current boundaries will only extend the idiocy… it will have no impact on congestion.

Dream on. It's so much easier to just say no.

And for loot rail fans, it’s just so much easier to waste our money.




Then there's Tim Eyman -- the king of naysaying.

Man… you people on the left DO hate him, don’t you?

Eyman's mantra is a variation on Annie "Get Your Gun" Oakley's song, sung fortissimo to cowering Frank Butlers in the Legislature and governor's office: "Anything you can do, I can undo better."

Odd that those on the left are so confused about what the phrase “will of the people” actually means.

If the Legislature of this state actually LISTENED to the people and actually DID our will, there wouldn’t BE any Tim Eyman. The Legislature of this state created him. They have it within their power to take him off the local scene.

But to do that is to move away from that bizarre, arrogant concept of the “leadership” label, and to actually do that which they’ve been elected to do.

You have to hand it to the guy. He found a lucrative and high-profile second career in taking on any and all taxing schemes by appealing to our most selfish instincts.

So, you on the far left now think we’re stupid because we want government accountability?

I’ve got to tell you, if people like you were as concerned about running an efficient, RESPONSIVE government as you are attacking those of us who disagree with you, this state would be Utopia.

Have you ever heard one constructive idea come out of his royal mouth?

Dozens. Repeatedly. Thanks for asking.

If your doctor told you that you're seriously ill but never bothered to prescribe for you a remedy for getting better, you'd be looking for a new physician pronto.

Yeah. That’s as succinct a description of the Legislature as I’ve ever seen. Well done!

How long do you think an engineer would last in the profession who tells clients only what they cannot build, and never offers any ideas on how best to design and build a structure?

Kind of like you, here, telling us that we CAN’T cut our taxes without telling us how to make the Legislature LISTEN and ACT on what we want, you mean?

So why do we accept King Eyman and others of his ilk telling us what we can't do and never demand that they come up with a better plan?

But… didn’t you do precisely the same thing at the start of this column? Where is YOUR “better plan” for the monorail?

As one of “Eyman’s Ilk,” I have a dozen ideas for better plans. But you on the left throw a fit whenever anyone comes after your sacred cows, such as prevailing wage, the sales tax shift, the ½% art requirement, taking ferries out of the transportation mix, getting rid of light rail, building a few hundred more miles of roads… those things are ALL “better plans.” And to people of YOUR “ilk,” they’re ALL DOA.

Instead, otherwise intelligent voters are suckered into a chorus of Just Say No while the king cashes in on the money people are throwing at him.

As opposed to the unions cashing in on the money you would have government throw at them, right?

This guy has saved the people of this state billions of dollars. If you and your ilk don’t believe you’re taxed enough, then feel free to start writing our state government extra checks. They’ll take the money.

What’s stopping you?

We're dying around here for lack of visionaries.

You include yourself in that description, do you?

Almost 50 years ago, attorney Jim Ellis and a handful of others dared to dream into existence the creation of a bold regional effort that successfully cleaned up a badly polluted Lake Washington.

In 1968, Ellis spearheaded an effort to get voters to approve a 47-mile rail transit system, at a local cost of only $385 million. An earlier generation of naysayers killed that one, and today we're paying an incredibly high cost for that myopic, tightwad decision.

See, in the mind of the far left, it’s “only” $385 million. Well $385 million back then was as much a waste of money as the $4 billion you people want to spend now.

We can play the “back then” game all day, including the part where state taxes, “back then” were dramatically less, both as an amount and a percentage of our incomes, than they are now.

Is there any hope that in our lifetime some politician(s) will have enough guts and backbone to challenge the Just Say No mentality?

Let me rephrase your desire.

Is there any hope that in our lifetime some politician(s) will have enough guts and backbone to ignore the people, their will, what they want in a huge way for Mr. Li’s fantasy kingdom?

Until then, we're consigned to borrow (loosely) from another Annie Oakley song and hum along with "Doin' Nothin' Natur'lly," while we stew in our beloved cars, stuck in gridlock.

Chi-Dooh Li is a Seattle attorney. E-mail: cli@elmlaw.com.

For Mr. Li, I offer this bit of advice:

Earlier in your screed, you mentioned “successful rapid transit systems elsewhere in this country and around the world, in cities and regions the size of Seattle and Puget Sound.”

Perhaps you would consider moving to one of those paradise locations, where the voters are far smarter, where government is the be all to end all, where taxes are at, say, 70%, and you, as one of the people, have no say.